Healthcare

Aged people, among other sectors, deserve the best of care services available today. However, it’s unfortunate that some families hold back in getting great aged care services from a reputable residential care facility because of financial constraints. The silver lining here is that subsidised residential home care is available to eligible individuals.

residential home care

National Aged Care Programme

Generally, aged care is supervised by the Department of Health. They also create policies, handle programmes, and impose regulatory measures on care providers and clients. The Aged Care Act of 1997 states that there are different types of care services that must be made available to Australian citizens such as respite, disability care, and residential home care. The latter is what most patrons and their families usually prefer.

Residential Home Care

To get subsidies from the government to pay for residential home care, your aged parent or relative must be assessed for eligibility before they can avail home care packages which may include a home care assistant. Besides help at home, they may also get transport services, respite, and community-based aged care.

Once they pass the eligibility assessment, they will be provided the results which indicate the type of services that they will get. If your loved one isn’t happy with the outcome of the assessment, they can always request for a review or an explanation on why they’re getting those services instead of the ones they were expecting.

Issues in residential home care

The growing aged population in Australia is not a sleeper issue. Despite the advancements of the health care system in the country, there are still too many issues, gaps, and complications in all of the involved. Families, professional carers, agencies, government authorities, and most especially the aged clients—they all have their own horror stories to share. Many of these tales will surely make people’s blood boil because most of them are usually about conflicts and incompetence in service.

The Commonwealth Government’s Answer

Customer Direct Care (CDC). In Australia, as an answer to the clients’ requests, the CDC was developed by the Commonwealth government in 2015 to instruct care providers to always pay attention to the clients and prioritise their diverse needs before their own. Additionally, honesty must also be incorporated through providing a clear and complete itinerary of the services that the client will get. As for the client’s part, they must be cooperative.

How can you know that you’re getting a quality residential home care service?

They are clear in what they really prioritise – Good care providers always put the clients first. The rules, regulation, and overall bureaucracy may be necessary to keep things in order, but people should always be the top priority. Handling a care providing system should include solving contingencies without stepping on their clients’ toes.

A real caring attitude – The carers are not only skilled in cleaning, cooking, or generally keeping a home in order, they are also skilled in adapting to the quirks and flaws of their clients. It’s not unusual for aged people to be moody, that’s why carers must be extremely patient to really become a carer.

Openness to suggestions – A carer may be trained in taking care of an aged or disabled patron, but they must also be willing to listen to what the client or their family has to say. It shouldn’t be “I know what’s better” all the time—as what CDC mandates, carers must collaborate with their clients at all times.